The Arizona sentinel., 1887-06-11
ALL ABOUT ELEPHANTS.
Many Comparatively New Facts in Regard
 to Their Habits and Peculiarities.

l to Their Habits and PeculiaritieS.
 The main supply of ivory is derived
 from the African elephant, and not
 from his Indian or Asiatic brethren.
 There are numerous differences be-
 tween the two-the African beast being
 the larger, a foot taller, having bigger
 ears, somewhat fatter head, and
 with four nails on each foot; whereas the Asiatlc elephant has four nails on
 each hind foot and five on his fore feet. It is the absence of tusks Tn the Asiatic elephant, or their partial development, which is the great difference. The tusks of the African elephant vary with the size or age of the animal. They have no roots like the teeth of animals, "but fit firmly into what are called premaxiliary sockets, and if we should examine this buried or hidden portion, we should find that it was partly hollow, so to speak. the ivory at the root being very thin and surround ing pulp, where the ivory is being secreted."
 As the animal increases in years the hollow in the tusk is filled up with solid material, and '1n extremely old elephants it disappears entirely, and the tusk is solid ivory" The dentine, as in the matured tusk, begins in pulp cavity, which may be ten inches or more long. imbedded in the skull, and this is soft Sometimes it hap pens that a ball has been fired at an elephant, which is imbedded in the softer portion of the tusk, and after while is surrounded by the harder ivory. Such balls are sometimes found by ivory workers.
 The true teeth of the elephant have a curious method of progression, ''mov- ing gradually forward from behind in regular succession; each old front tooth as it is worn away being pushed out of place by its successor" The wear and tear on the teeth of this ami mated grInding-mill must be immense "a large Indian elephant consuming eight hundred pounds of green fodder in the eighteen hours.
 An English officer in charge of ele- phants belonging to the Government found that for years the animals had been given two hundred and fifty pounds of green fodder, and had been starved, because, through ignorance, the Government had fixed the rate. The elephant uses his tusks for attack and defense, but principally, in a wild state, to overturn trees of small growth, so that he can feed on their branches. Sir Samuel Baker meas ured mimosa trees four feet six inches in circumference and thirty feet high, which elephants had pulled down, and the damage they cause is almost in- credible. These trees, however, have no deep root, and are comparatively easy to overthrow.
 It is the trunk of the elephant which is its most remarkable feature. Culver estimated it as containing forty thou sand muscles. It is both hand and nose. Though the trunk is so useful, it is very tender and delicate organ, and is not used in the rough manner generally supposed. '1n making an attack, it is raised high in the air out of the way. When great weight is lifted, it is not the trunk, but the tusks, which are employed, the former only holding the object upon the latter.'
 There are many facts in regard tc elephants which arc novel to readers. It is not generally known that there is resemblance between the stomachs of the elephant and a camel, since both possess the power of storing wa ter. Hunters have been often aston. ished at seeing elephants, which they have been chasing for some time, in- sert their trunks into their mouths, . and there obtain a supply of water that is blown over their dry and heat ed body.-Golden Days.